After approximately five minutes of running in the woods, the red-eyed boy finally stopped and thought.
'Hold on, this didn't actually look like flames...'
He looked through a gap in the trees and observed the rising sun and its faint orange color and felt the chilly air of the mountain. His expression turned awkward.
'...It was just a normal alpaca whose respiration looked like flames under the sunlight, wasn't it ? Yeah it was...'
Still a bit out of breath, he observed his environment. It was a forest of conifers with multiple small hills and a higher mountain on his right. He had no idea where he came from or where to go from now. In the first place, Tom rarely left the farm as he was rather gloomy and uninterested in the world around him. It was probably the result of being abandoned by his parents who lived in the city and forced to take care of animals and crops on a farm that didn't contain any other children.
Sighing, the little boy sat on a nearby rock and reorganized his thoughts.
'Thankfully, I was still rather the outdoorsy type in my previous life. Well, at least before...'
He shook his head, what was important was not reminiscing about the past but focus on survival.
'First, I need to organize my knowledge of this world.'
Based on Tom's memories, he could still get a pretty good idea of the situation; it wasn't completely hopeless. He had reincarnated in the Kingdom of Sydai, a small country filled with mountains, lakes and forest. Although it seemed poor and filled with small villages, it wasn't actually the case at all. They were big, rich and developed cities and their technological development was probably going to soar in the upcoming years for a long time. He could make this prediction based on one thing : the steam machine was becoming popular a few months before Tom was sent to the farm. Be it prototypes of trains or factories... The kid even saw a gun once, although it was probably a flintlock !
Sydai was a neutral Kingdom placed in between the real powerful players in the continent. Their names were the Red Empire : Alario to the west and the eastern Holy Kingdom of Clouds : Ondario. They were real superpowers, several times larger and countless times more militarily powerful than Sydai. Tom didn't know much more than this on the geopolitical situation.
'Based on its' wealth and the fact that the Kingdom was able to remain neutral despite the difference of power, I can conclude that this country is at least as technologically developed as the superpowers. Probably more. But that's strange, Tom didn't have any knowledge of any wars despite being aware of the mutual hostility between the Holy Kingdom and the Red Empire... Perhaps it's because of the churches' influence ?'
They were a number of 12 different Churches representing 12 different Gods the people worshiped. For example the Church of Mother Earth that Tom believed in.
'Although I say he believed in it, the damn kid didn't know a thing about what it was preaching, only that Mother Earth would help the crops grow if he prayed to Her.'
Tom also knew the name of the remaining churches. They were the Church of the Glorious Sun, the Church of Darkness, Church of Joy, the Church of Combustion, the Church of the Flood, the Church of Slumber and Death, the Church of the Moon, the Church of War and Disasters, the Church of the Cold and Desperate, the Church of Sight and the Church of Peace.
'Honestly, their names are all other the place. These Gods must be really weird.'
After having this blasphemous thought, his red eyes turned to the sky with concern.
'I hope I don't get struck by lightning or something, after all Gods might really exist in this world. '
He had a real basis for his hypothesis : superpowers. Or rather, "blessed", they were pious believers of the various Churches whose tasks were to fight demons and spread their respective religions in the world using supernatural powers. As for what those powers were, Tom once saw a man in a white priest robe invoke holy light and heal people of illnesses in a temple of the Glorious Sun.
'So, it's really a Fantasy world !'
Despite being lost in an unknown mountain forest, he was excited and in a really good mood.
'Perhaps it's the fresh air...' he thought, absent-minded. 'Wait a second, what was that about demons ? If I remember correctly...'
There was a unique story shared no matter the religion. It was the "creation myth" of this world. Approximately 4 thousand years ago, the 12 Gods faced 999 demons together. Each demon was among the most powerful of its race and even the Gods had almost no hope of surviving this battle. Fortunately, this wasn't the demon's turf, and the God of the Glorious Sun(at least it was this one in the story Tom knew) succeeded in closing to door to hell against all odds, instantly slaying all the demons and ending the Great Divine War. The Gods then united to create the human species and blessed them with various powers and intellect.
'So, logically, there shouldn't be any demons... Maybe the sun god messed up and forget to lock the door or something. However...'
Delighted to find more fantasy elements, he grinned, revealing pointy white teeth. They were stories about mythical creatures such as dragons, 10 meters long lions whose roars shook the earth and sharks the size of a military ship in Tom's memories. Although these animals were said to be extremely rare, the stories didn't sound made up and everyone treated them seriously. He quickly stopped smiling thought, realizing that he was in the middle of nowhere and that if he crossed paths with so much as their newborn babies, he would die without a chance of fighting back.
His red eyes subconsciously checked his surroundings and he almost fell off his crossed-legged position atop the rock. He was so engrossed in his thoughts that he didn't notice the man observing him from the right. The peeping-tom looked like he was in his mid-twenties, with pale skin and dark hair. His clothes were similar to those worn in the city and he wore a curious on his face.
"Kid..." he began with a cold but soft voice. Our protagonist instantly added to his description that the man had a rather punchable face.
'You're like 3 years older than me, how about being more respectful ?'
Thankfully, he remembered that he indeed looked like a 10-year-old kid with grey linen clothes belonging to a farmer, so he didn't interrupt the man. The truth was that this person was pretty handsome, with a small nose and high cheekbones.
"Where did you learn meditation ? Because you're doing a pretty bad job at it, honestly." The man said those strange words in alarian, the language of the Red Empire. Fortunately, Tom knew both alarian and ondarian, the language of the Holy Kingdom of Clouds, like most of the people originating from Sydai. As the characters were the same for both languages, he also could read and write in them.
The boy first took a step back, putting the rock as an obstacle between him and the unknown man.
In his previous life, he had progressively become distrustful of people, to the point when the need to avoid them overcame his desire to interact with the outside world. By his second year of college, he had already closed up for good. Now that he was stranded in an unfamiliar environment, in a child's body and a man sneaked up on him without making a sound before asking a weird question... Well he wasn't going to stop being cautious no matter how good his mood was. And weirdly enough, it really was.
Still he gave up on running, perhaps because of curiosity or because he didn't believe he could flee if the pale man wanted to kill him. His dark-red eyes just stared without blinking into the curious bright-red eyes in front of him.
'Looks like my eye color isn't too weird in this world.'
Seeing the boy disregard his question, the man asked him :
"What's your name, kid ?"
The "kid"'s eyelid twitched.
'If I didn't know better I would think this guy is trying to piss me off. Of course, there is no way he knows that I forgot my name. I'll just say I'm nobody. Let's see how he reacts.'
"Nem..." Started the boy before abruptly stopping.
'Did I just try to speak Latin ? 'Neminem' ? How is that even an error a human being can make ? I guess my head is still not alright after all... It's true that I've been thinking in a mix of random languages since I woke up.'
It would be extremely confusing if one could hear his thoughts, but since he knew all the words he used, it naturally felt relatively normal to him.
The man seemed to be unaware of his predicament and kept a straight face.
"I see. I'm Sarth Robinson, forgive me for my curiosity, Nem, but where are your parents ? I didn't think anyone lived around here, yet alone wandered into the forest."
'This guy just accepted this weird-ass name like that ? I mean, maybe it's not weird in this world but... Aaah, is this guy professor Oak or something ?! I obviously didn't mean to say that ! Sigh, forget it... I'm named after Vietnamese food now... '
He could have taken Tom's name if he really wanted to- since he had pretty much all his memories- but it just didn't feel right. He simply couldn't see himself in the kid's identity and even instinctively rejected any association with him. After all, the rascal probably somehow got killed by an alpaca.
'It would be bad luck to take such a name for myself.' In fact, giving himself a name that meant "nobody" felt like a much better fit.
"I don't have any parents." Nem said without a change of expression. "What was that about meditation ? I was just thinking." He decided to act the part of a little boy for a change and put up an interested smile. "Uncle what are you doing in a place like that if nobody is there ? With those clothes too..." In this situation, he didn't have any prepared stories to cover up his origin so Nem thought it was better to take control of the conversation. He had plenty of questions to ask anyways.
Sarth maintained his cold expression and without any awkwardness, disregarded the first question. "I'm a mercenary going to meet a special client... he is few hours from any roads, so I have to walk."
Nem was so doubtful he uncontrollably raised a brow in surprise.
'You kidding me ? This guy is as much a mercenary as I a cute and innocent child. His skin looks like he didn't go outside for years and he doesn't even seem to have clothes for outside the city... My guess is that he is probably an official working in office or...'
Nem's pupils suddenly contracted and his eyes lit up for an instant, seemingly reflecting the amber sunlight.
'An assassin.'